Like every Texas prison established before the 1980s, Memorial Unit is built on a former slave plantation. A short drive away, you can see the rubble of slaver Abner Jackson’s home and sugar mill.

Both cattle and cotton—once the main supports of Texas—are still big business; Texas plantations and ranches yield a third of U.S. cotton, 10% of U.S. beef. Texas has 25% of the nation’s ...

So here are some things you should understand about the now-burned Nottoway Plantation ... from Nottoway and his other properties into Texas to grow cotton. After the war, they were freed ...